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FAQ
Intro, Other Guides and Tools Remember to watch the Tutorial video and skim the Manual before asking questions, as many things you need to know are contained within each. Flight School is a Faction too! The Faction you begin in, Flight School, is an active Faction also. As you progress and begin to consider "choosing" a Faction, keep in mind that sticking with Flight School is a valid choice, as well as choosing to join the Azure League, the Jade Hand, the Crimson Armada, the Earthen Order or the Court of Violets. Other Guides * A full Skill Point guide as well as brief descriptions and an attribute chart of every ship in the game are both available. * If you want an expert to help you with something, contact one of the Echo Academy of Flight's Instructors on the Radio or via PM (personal message) on the Skyrates Forum. * You can also check elsewhere in the Skybrary, where a lot of useful game mechanics, game tips (including Combat and Trading) and Skytopian history have been recorded. * For some roleplaying (RP) aid, check out the Roleplay guide. Tools Other useful tools are: * The Riley Chart, by Kathryn, shows distances between skylands. * Influence Toys by Kathryn. * The Automagic Arcamatic 3000 by Captain Waffles. FAQ primary credit This FAQ and structure have primarily come from work by Kyra / alliisara. __TOC__ New info (NEW) How does the Trade insurance work? In your Options area (lower right button), in the Options tab (upper right), there is an option in the middle of the screen for Trade Insurance Wanted which should be selected by default. When selected, you will not purchase any goods that are deep into the red range due to a run on the market. It will still buy at certain shallow red levels, just not deeper into red and not at all at the infrared levels. You can de-select it if you begin advanced red-to-red trades. (NEW) When does the Auto-resolver (AR) flee? The auto-resolver will flee when you reach a certain percentage of your base armor remaining (not your current). Although this was previously one (1) armor, there is now a setting in your Options which defaults to 50%. For example, if you fly a Hades with 10 armor, this means that the AR will automatically attempt to flee any battle it enters when you have 5 armor or less. In your options area (lower right button), in the Options tab (upper right), there is an option in the middle of the screen for Autoresolver Cowardice which should be 50% by default. Setting this adjusts the armor level at which your AR will attempt to flee. Note that as you change planes, this value will be quite different, and as you get more armor, you may want it lower if you like the income. How does the Auto-resolver (AR) work? As outlined by a developer forum post: It takes into account your Skyrate's plane, your Skyrate's plane upgrades, and your Skyrate's combat skills. Also, rather than just going off of a simple combat level number, it actually generates planes to fight against you and does several volleys back and forth. As an aside: I say above that all of these things are your Skyrate's because in our design, you and your Skyrate are not the same (which is why he/she calls you "boss" all the time). When you're in a manual combat, you're taking over the controls from your Skyrate and teaching her how to fight, which is why she earns CP from the fight which can be spent on combat skills. AR fleeing has been changed to an option. (see previous FAQ entry) General Questions What level of technology exists in Skyrates? Skyrates is at a kind of steampunk level. Higher tech versions of lower tech, somewhat akin to post WW2, and very much like the TaleSpin kind of technologies. There are no computers at this point, nor robots, nor jet engines. See Skyrates Tech for more details. Is trading or combat worth more? This depends highly on how good you are at combat, and the current quality of the trade routes. The best method, in fact, is a combination of both. However, a casual player should focus on trading, as combat is very time consuming. Why is the gameplay so slow? Skyrates was originally an experiment in sporadic play, and many of the players do quite well checking in only occasionally. What happens if I leave the game? The game continues running, even when you're not logged in! So set up your queue, and come back when you can. Why are there so few skylands? When you first start, you can only see a few skylands. If you want to see more, or reach the grayed out ones that you can see, get another point in Flight License. I can see a skyland, but it won't show me its name! And I can't plot there! The grayed out skylands are the ones you'll unlock with the next level of Flight License. If you want to fly to them, you'll need to buy the next level of that skill. How do I rename my plane? In the window to view your plane's stats, there is a small pencil to the lower-right of the aircraft's current name. Click this, and a box will pop up that lets you type a new name. Click the checkbox when you're done, and the name is changed immediately. What happens if I run out of money and can't refuel/fix my ship? Post on the forums or let a dev know over Radio. They're really nice, and will be happy to get you back on your feet. Can I transfer funds between accounts? No. This is intentional. With the ability to transfer funds come a whole lot of ways to abuse the system. Besides, Skyrates is about the journey through the tiers; it wouldn't be any fun if you could just jump into the high-level plane. Why isn't there X feature? I asked for it and the Devs said "not now"! The devs are really awesome, but also really busy. A lot of their time is spent fixing bugs, which leaves them less time to work on new features, and what time they do have is spent on big changes. They do this on their own time, for free, so don't hassle them. =P How come it never rains? It does, just never when we can see it...? How do I mine for fish? You cannot mine for fish, or for any goods. The only way to gain goods is to purchase them in the market at a skyland. Any older player who tells you otherwise is pulling your leg. Flying How do I plot multiple flights? Once you've plotted a course to a skyland, click on the skyland to bring up more options. You can queue trades, service, queue a hunt, etc. Once you've set up what you want to do on that skyland, you can then queue a flight to another skyland by clicking on the other skyland. You'll get the option to plot a flight there, and it'll add it on to your planned queue. You have to queue a service first, so you have fuel to get there, or it won't queue the flight. Make sure that you click "Update" or "Start", though, or it won't change your queue! It won't let me plot another flight! If you don't queue to service, you may not have enough fuel to make another leg. Under the Options menu, you can set the game to automatically queue a service when you plot another leg. What plane should I get? This is a really complicated question, depending on what you're looking for. Complicated enough that Flight School has a class on it. Your best bet is to ask one of our instructors, or ask on the Radio. Why don't the crew members/missions refresh when I land? Crew members and missions only refresh when you land on a different skyland. So if you've been hunting and land on the same skyland you left, then you'll see the same crew members and missions as were there before. Visit another skyland to reset them. Trading Which goods are worth more? Goods start out cheapest at "12 o'clock" with wood, and become more valuable as you go clockwise around the circle. In general, it's worth more to do a trade route with a good further around the circle. There are three separate "quality levels", shown by the color change for the section, and there are distinct price-jumps between the different groups. Which types of trades are best? Given the choice, you should always trade such that you sell at red. Prices follow an exponential curve, so trades blue->red are much better than purple->yellow. However, in general, trading a yellow-quality good (tools, oil, steel) from purple->yellow may be better than trading a green-quality good (wood through ore) from blue->red, as the yellow-quality goods are much more valuable. NEVER trade green -> yellow, blue -> green, or purple -> blue. You WILL NOT make money. I lost money on my trade, even though they were different colors! How come? If the prices are too close, you may still lose money due to taxes! So be careful, especially before you have a trader or skill points in the tax-reducing skills. Always sell at red if you can, and don't buy at green if you have to sell at yellow! What is this "infrared" trading I've heard of? Sometimes on the rim, some trades look red but have really high prices. To find these, check the price you get for your cargo. If it's ridiculously high, it's infrared. Another way to find these trades is to look for where lots of planes are flying on the rim. Chances are, there's an infrared at one end of that route. How do I know how much something is selling for when I'm planning a route? Clicking on the "Show Cargo" button in the lower left will pop-up a screen with all the trade items on it. You can mouse over a sklyand and a ring will grow showing you the relative amounts of a commodity on a skyland. Also, if you click on a particular item in the "Show Cargo" panel, the skylands will change color to reflect this amount, giving you the ability to compare multiple skylands at once. Exact amounts, well, those you only know when you land and talk to the possum. Combat What happens when I get shot down? Pirates of Skytopia are actually quite nice... or at least, quite smart. They'll take only a portion of your cargo, and then let you keep going to your destination. Watch out, though, because you'll be out of armor for the rest of your trip and be more at risk of getting shot down again. What if I blackout in combat? If you use all your blackout meter, both the combat screen and your radar will go dark, hiding any enemy planes. You will also be unable to turn until you recover some of your blackout meter. Help! I keep losing! How do I get away without spending all that money? If you find yourself in a combat you'd rather not fight, you can flee by flying far enough that all the enemy planes leave your radar area. Be careful, as they will chase you most of the time, and some planes take a long time to stop pursuit. Still, fleeing is free, and you still get partial reward and CP for any kills you made. I'm hunting and I want to stop. How do I do that? Currently, the only way to leave a hunt partway through is to divert to another skyland and then divert back. If you're too far into a hunt, though, then you might not have enough fuel left to divert and thus you won't be able to end the hunt. I'm hunting and my queue won't update! There is a bug that keeps you from updating your queue mid-hunt. Also, actions queued for after a hunt tend to be buggy. Plan your hunts into your queue accordingly. What about if my Skyrate runs into some combats while I'm gone? If you make it back before your Skyrate finishes a leg of his/her flight, then you can manually fight or flee all the combats that are queued up. Otherwise, on landing, the game will autoresolve all your combats. On March 2, 2008, the devs clarified how the autoresolver works in this thread. In particular, the autoresolver "takes into account your Skyrate's plane, your Skyrate's plane upgrades, and your Skyrate's combat skills." It does not take into account your record in previous combats. Why are my combats so hard? There are several possible reasons for this. • Did you just get a new plane? Combat difficulty for a given level is determined by your plane. So a plane with a better "combat rating" will face harder combats. • Are you carrying any missions? Missions increase the level of combats that you fight, even cargo missions and Treasure Hunts. If your combats are too hard, try dropping a mission or two. • Do you have any skill points in CI? Combat Infamy increases the level of the combats you face. Unfortunately, you can't give it back once you get it. Fly to somewhere that has a lower danger level until you are better at combat. • If it's not one of the above, you're in an area that has a higher danger rating. Click the "Show Danger" option, and go to someplace that's less black. How many levels do missions add? First of all, all missions add levels, even non-combat missions. So even if you're carrying a Treasure Hunt or cargo mission, you'll still get harder combats. • "Low" danger missions add 2 levels • "Medium" danger missions add 4 levels • "High" danger missions add 6 levels Are there any hotkeys for the maneuvers? Yes. The maneuvers are hotkeyed to the numbers at the top of the keyboard, and the key 'If you look at the pause screen, from top to bottom is the keys 1 to 0, and then [, as follows: • 1: Airbrake • 2: Afterburner • 3: Right Sideslip • 4: Left Sideslip • 5: Immelman • 6: Split S • 7: Loop • 8: RLR Barrel Roll • 9: LRL Barrel Roll • 0: Left Wingover • [: Right Wingover Can I change the maneuver hotkeys? If you want to change the maneuver hotkeys, you'll need to get a program that lets you write your own hotkeys. There are several such free programs for Windows, but we've been having trouble finding such programs for Mac and Linux. If you know of any programs, let us know. Experience Points How do I earn Flight Points? Flight Points (FP) are earned at the rate of one (1) flight point per 30 minutes of actual flight time. Flight time includes travel between skylands, waypoints, and hunt time. If you're sitting at a skyland, you are not earning FP. While flight points are one of the fastest set of points you will gain as you start the game, it is important to note that they're scarcer later on. Although you start slow with Trade and Combat points, they both accelerate as you get faster, better, further out, whereas FP will collect at the same level throughout your time. How do I earn Trade Points? Trade Points (TP) are earned at the rate of one (1) TP per 3,000 in total trade profits. Trade profits are your revenues (sales income) minus your cost of goods (prices you pay to get the goods. TP come from your totals, so every small trade profit you make will build towards your next points. (You do not need to get the whole 3,000 in a single sale.) If you take a loss on a sale for any reason, you will not lose your existing TP, but you will not gain any new TP until you get back up to the next 3,000 mark above your previous point. Income from combats and missions have no effect upon your trade profit, and therefore will not gain any TP. TP will often start off very slowly as you work up to the levels where you can get greater and greater income, but will be easy to obtain even without a strong trade focus later in the game, and will be acquired very rapidly if you focus heavily upon the trading aspect of the game. How do I earn Combat Points? Combat Points (CP) are earned from manually resolved combats. These are combats that you complete yourself, not those automatically resolved (AR) for you. CP are gained at a rate related to how many levels of pirates you take out during a combat. (Different planes have different values.) Early combats will give you one (1) CP, but can progress as high as at least five (5) CP at higher levels. Just as with TP, CP will start off somewhat slow (although they're easier to acquire early on than TP, due to patrols and combats en route.) As you progress, they will be very easy to acquire if you focus on doing manual combats, but can never be obtained quite as fast as TP at the high end, due to the maximum per combat combined with the requirement of manual action. Factions and Influence What are factions? Factions are groups of people who join together for camaraderie and common purpose. The basic function of a faction within the game is as a grouping that determines where the influence from any missions you run will be applied to. However, factions can also be a source of information, chat, history, and role play. You are part of Flight School [yellow when you join the game, after twenty-four (24) hours of total flight time (not playing time), you get the option to join another faction if you would like. Flight school can be an active faction itself, so making a decision to move on is not necessary. How do I join a faction? To join the Azure League, Jade Hand, Crimson Armada, Earthen Order, or Court of Violets, you must first have a total of twenty-four (24) hours of total flight time. You then fly to that faction's 'home' skyland. You can ask the mayor (middle person in the tavern) about the faction at any skyland, and will be told where to go for the controlling faction there. On the capital, you talk to the mayor and select the faction button and you will have a choice to join that faction. This decision is final, and you will not be able to leave the faction or change factions. Talk with people in chat, find the group you really want to be with. You may want to look over the History to consider if you want to join for historical connection. Currently: Azure League capital is Islo Flight school capital is Echo Jade Hand capital is Eltsina Crimson Armada capital is Fuseli Earthen Order capital is Lhasa Court of Violets capital is Arcadia Although flight school has a capital, it is not necessary to 'join' Flight school, as you start within that faction. If you wish to stay with Flight school, you do not need to do anything. What is influence, and what is it for? Influence is used to change the flag on a skyland, or acquire the "Leader" spot, also called governor. At this time, this has no known effect on any actual function of the game, it merely has a visual and conceptual effect. Even without statistical changes, there are a large number of players who consider the 'influence' game as important, and all factions have a some active contingent if you are interested in joining the action. When you complete missions, your influence for that mission is added to your factions total influence at the skyland you acquired the mission at. In addition, it's added to your personal total influence, and personal influence at that skyland. The faction who acquires the greatest total influence at skyland gets their flag flying over that skyland on the map. (Click the 'show flags' option to see these.) The individual who acquires the greatest total influence at a skyland gets their name in the leader board for that skyland, on the rankings influence page. What are missions, and what are they for? At each skyland, there are three people to talk to in the Tavern. The moose (left) gives out some basic missions (usually trade), the mayor (middle) usually gives out trade missions, but some combat missions, and the badger (right) gives out combat missions. Each mission contains some degree of money and/or influence reward. Usually there's a combination of both, but some missions only give one or the other. Combat missions will require a certain number of kills (not levels or CP, just actual plane kills, regardless of their level.) Trade missions will require that you carry a certain quantity of cargo to another skyland. There are also some special missions like the Treasure Hunts, which will not tell you specifically where to go, you must travel to find them. Each of these missions will complete when you've accomplished them (kills, trade/treasure hunts upon arrival) and there is no need to return to the location you acquired the mission at. Note that many kinds of missions require that you not lose a combat at all, and have various text to inform you of this. Missions can be a source of income if you lack a decent trade option at the skyland or do a lot of combat, and treasure hunts can be handy if you want an option at spare cash. Missions are the only source for acquiring influence in the game. You can carry a maximum of three missions at a time. Can I join the Pirate faction? Not at this time, no. Can I join multiple factions? No, you may not be part of more than one faction. You can leave factions, however you cannot rejoin them until a reset. Crew How do I get a crewmember? Crew are citizens that you can find hanging around in the tavern by talking to the Moose. They will improve your actions in a variety of ways, and can be wonderful assets and friends. Planes can have multiple crew slots, although some very early planes cannot carry crew. Within the same tier, you will find variations it max crew, so take a look at that when you're shopping. In general, the first crew of a type is the most effective, and adding a second of the same type will provide some improvement, but not nearly the level of the first. (See Crew) Mechanics operate independently, and can provide an ever increasing amount of armor regeneration. Crew options on a skyland work like missions and patrols, and are determined when you land at a new skyland. They will not change until you've landed at another skyland and come back. (Hunting, waypoints, etc do not change this.) The crew members that you see will not necessarily be seen by someone else landing at that skyland while you're there, as they will get their own selection set. Crew have happiness ratings (a.k.a. morale) that vary from angry to "King Slime Happy" (the happy with the crown, or the maximum happy.) These ratings can alter how much you get out of their abilities. You can choose to split your profits and bounties (combat income) with them, and if you do it will only be split when they're less than king slime happy. Crew level up from activities related to their functions, and have a daily income based upon their level. I have an open crew slot! What type of crew member should I hire? There are four kinds of crew members you can pick up: Trader, Mechanic, Diplomat, Navigator Planes can have different quantities of crew members, crew will join you on a new plane if there is room. If there is not, you will have to drop crew members until it matches the plane you wish to acquire. Crew members gain experience as you do things that they can be involved in. You will choose crew members based upon what kind of improvements you would like in your play. What do each of those do? A good place to get the skinny on crew is at Crew, or Crew/Deconstructing Crew. Trader: helps increase your profits by reducing the taxes you pay to buy or sell goods Mechanic: helps avoid cargo theft on combat loss, and provides longer survival during long combat runs by occasionally repairing an armor during flight. Also helps increase combat income from bounties. Diplomat: helps avoid cargo theft on combat loss by hiding goods. Also provides increases in both money and influence gains from missions, and reduces the costs of bribes if you wish to bribe out combats. Navigator: helps increase your speed between skylands with two new flight options: risky and safe. Flying risky will greatly increase the number of combats you will encounter on a flight (great for combat or combat income) while flying safe will greatly reduce the number of combats you will encounter on a flight (great for low combat traders, or dangerous unattended queue routes.) Navigators are universally useful, and are often suggested as an early crew member, although any of these can be useful for you. I can't find a Navigator anywhere! Help! Navigators are the most difficult crew member to locate, but this doesn't mean you wont see plenty of them. However, it is quite common to not see one for long stretches, and if this is when you start looking, it can be frustrating. Although there are a few ways to look for them, one of the simplest and earliest areas with a higher likelyhood of having a Navigator is around Tehras, Earthbreach, and Islo. Note that these are not the ONLY locations to find them in, just good places to check when you can't fly very far yet. Why are my crew members mad at me? Your crew members' morale is affected by a large number of factors, including how their "personalities" interact with each other. The thing that angers them the most is being shot down and hurt in combat, whether via autoresolver or manual. I didn't lose any combats, and they're still mad at me! Crew members with incompatible personalities are a great source of frustration in this area. Another thing that will make your crew unhappy is lack of action; winning a manual combat or two fixes this one. In general, putting points into the skill Leadership will make your crew happier as well. Wings What is a wing? A wing is a group of players who have joined together. Within a wing, you get your own wing chat tab, and a grouping in the rankings. The wing has no effect on any activity in game otherwise. You do not need to be in the same faction to join a wing. How do I join a wing? Wings are started at specific skylands. The Combat Officer (Badger) on the right side in the tavern will have a Wing option for you to look at. Since these are primarily a source of chat, there is no need to join one until you've found a group you would like to join (or create your own.) To join that wing, you go to the skyland they're based at, talk to the badger, and select a wing to request admission. Where is there a list of current wings? Lists of wings can be found in the following locations: Wings rankings -- Provides lists of players in wings and their current basic numbers Wings list -- Provides lists of wings, their home skylands, founder, and description. Where can I look at my current wing/accept applications? At the top of the window, the 'Logistics' tab will take you to the location where you can manage your wing. How many people can be in a wing? Up to nine players can be part of a wing. How many wings are there per skyland? There are a maximum of five (5) wings per skyland. How do I start my own wing? When at a skyland with open wing spots (below the maximum), you can talk to the Combat Officer (on the right at the Tavern) and create your wing. You choose who to accept into your wing when they ask to join, you can remove members, and you can disband by leaving the wing. Chat and Forums Logging In To log into the forum you must use you player name and not your Skyrates login name. The password remains the same. Every alt has a different forum log in. What do the different colored names in chat mean? The colored names in chat are based upon the faction the person is in. They correspond primarily to the nine basic factions and a couple special types: Azure League blue, flight school yellow, Jade Hand green, Crimson Armada red, Court of Violets purple, Earthen Order brown, independents orange, the developers names, and test/special characters names. Beige text without a colored name is an emote. Is there a way to ignore a person in chat? You can ignore a person with the /ignore command. This will stay in place until you've reloaded or logged out and back in. To ignore "NOTME" you would type: /ignore NOTME If the person has more than one name (like, say, "Really Annoying Person"), then to ignore him/her you would type: /ignore "Really Annoying Person" Is there a friends list? Not at this time, no. Can I change my name/avatar? Currently, you cannot change the name or avatar yourself. However, the devs are very friendly and helpful, and will be glad to change a name or avatar for you if you ask them nicely. Common Bugs action=edit}} edit Resets What is a reset? Periodically, all players are put back to the beginning Oh noes! A reset sounds awful! This isn't a bad thing! You get to start over, try a different way up the Tiers, and remember that everyone else is in the same boat! So you'll get a chance to really compare yourself to all the top players. Plus, without resets, the game would get old once everyone all had their top planes. It's also a good time for the devs to add major new changes that would break the game if added in the middle of a round. What happens in a reset? A reset often involves a lot of changes to the game, such as a rearrangement of the skylands, new skills, and other changes. The devs tend to put in major changes at resets. Also, everyone gets sent back to the "beginning", like a new member. Will I keep my name/money/plane? In a reset, the only thing you'll keep are your characters' names. In all other ways, you'll be back to a brand new player - all experience points gone, money reset to 10k, and a CR-4P for your plane. How often do resets happen? There tend to be at least several months between resets. This round started on the 15th December 2008. The devs will also let everyone know when a reset is pending, so you should have a couple weeks' warning. When will the next reset be? The next reset hasn't been announced, so there are at least two or three more months.